


there are no fortunes to be told, although

by phantomlistener



Category: The Bletchley Circle
Genre: Bletchley-era, F/F, Pining, Tarot, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-04
Updated: 2019-11-04
Packaged: 2021-01-23 04:38:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 900
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21314317
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phantomlistener/pseuds/phantomlistener
Summary: One dark autumnal evening, Millie, Susan, and Lucy read fortunes. They're just cards, after all - just foolish, painted cards - and it's not as if they can tell the future. Or the truth.
Relationships: Susan Gray/Millie Harcourt
Kudos: 20
Collections: Spooktober 2019





	there are no fortunes to be told, although

**Author's Note:**

> A late entry to the Spooktober challenge, prompt "fortune telling/tarot". Title from WH Auden's "[But I Can't](https://genius.com/W-h-auden-if-i-could-tell-you-annotated%22)".

The fire was burning low, almost out, lending a smoky warmth to the room that was fast disappearing. Bletchley nights in Autumn seemed to always be cold, the sheets and blankets never quite enough to stave off the chill that inevitably crept in by morning, left feet like ice and windows dripping with condensation. Despite the last vestiges of warmth from the fire, Millie was glad of her cardigan and scarf, and even more glad of the cigarette that pulled warm air right into the core of her body with every drag.

Opposite her at the slightly rickety table, Susan bit absently at her nails. She was probably still mulling over the encryption from earlier, turning it over and around in her head, pulling at the threads of logic until they gave way and unravelled for her. Millie envied her the comfortable quickness of her intelligence, admired the way patterns emerged from the depths of German ingenuity and revealed themselves, as if by magic, to her waiting eyes. Envied her other things too – her bright smile, her infectious enthusiasm, the way she leaned in close to Millie when they worked with absolutely no hesitation or doubt.

Susan smiled at her, slightly questioning, and she realised she had been staring. With a reassuring shake of her head, she turned her attention to Lucy instead, hands playing absently with the deck of cards before her. “Shall we try?” she asked, comfortably daring.

“Isn’t it- isn’t it _dangerous_?”

“_Germans_ are dangerous,” Millie retorted, thought better of it almost immediately at Lucy’s crestfallen face. “Oh come on, Lucy, they’re just painted cards! They can’t possibly hurt you.” She pushed the pile face-down into the middle of the table. “Go on, Susan.”

“Why me?!”

“Because Lucy’s too scared and I’ve done this before. Come on, it’ll be a laugh.”

Susan reached for the top card and turned it over with visible reluctance to reveal a woman, dressed in unadorned white and cloaked in a sky-blue robe that matched Millie’s cardigan. Her crown shone yellow-gold, and she sat on an elaborate throne.

Millie turned to her friend: “Lucy?”

“The High Priestess,” Lucy recited, eyes closed. “In reverse, this card is a warning to beware solitude and seek the company of friends.”

“Oooh, Susan,” Millie teased, her red-painted lips turned up in amusement. “It’s a good job you’ve got us.”

Susan smiled gamely, but her gaze on the cards was uneasy, wary. “Do I really have to choose another one?”

“That is the idea.”

This time the card she picked was brighter, more childlike: two figures holding golden chalices with a stylised lion’s head floating above them.

Lucy didn’t need prompting, her voice in the oddly detached cadence it adopted when she spoke from memory. “The two of cups symbolises the flowing of love, often romantic, between two people. Mutual respect and admiration could easily become more serious. Follow your heart, but don’t leave your head behind.” She smiled, transforming her earnest expression into warmth and making her look like the child she had so recently been. “That’s really nice, don’t you think?”

Susan said nothing, pink-cheeked and stiff, and snatched her hands off the table.

The room was suddenly too warm for Millie, too small, and a hot, fierce wave of shame swept over her, prickled her skin like a thousand tiny needles. She didn’t look at Susan when she said, brightly, “Well, that wasn’t so bad, was it?”

Susan smiled wanly and shook her head, smoothed down the front of her soft cream cardigan. “No ghosts or witches came creeping, I suppose.”

“There you go, then.” Millie gathered the cards back to her with a little more haste than was strictly necessary, shuffling and smoothing back into the semblance of a neat pile. “Absolutely nothing to be frightened of. It’s just a bit of harmless fun.”

Lucy opened her mouth to speak, confused, but before she could say anything the door opened with a warning squeak that gave Millie just enough time to cover the deck of cards with her scarf, flashing the others a warning conspiratorial look, just as Jean McBrien bustled in. “What are you girls up to?” she asked briskly, and her no-nonsense energy quickly dispelled Millie’s maudlin thoughts. “It’s well past lights out, come on with you.”

Millie smiled up at her with an innocence that had Jean rolling her eyes: “Alright, alright, I don’t want to know. Now off to bed, the three of you. You can guarantee the Germans aren’t relaxing, that’s for sure.”

“More’s the pity,” Millie said under her breath, standing from her chair with the deck of cards safely concealed in a bundle of cloth.

“I heard that, Miss Harcourt,” Jean said, but there was no bite to her tone.

Millie turned to follow Susan out of the door, paused with her hand on the doorframe and turned back. “Goodnight,” she said, and Jean’s face softened fractionally in response. A brief victory, she thought, and followed Susan out and into the dimly-lit corridor down towards their bedroom.

She would sleep with Susan in the bed opposite, and get up in the morning when Susan jabbed her awake fifteen minutes before their shift, and drink tea with Susan in the cafeteria at elevenses, and everything would be fine. There was a card in the pack for that, she was certain: she just had to rig the deck.


End file.
